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Wednesday, August 8, 2012

The Women in My Life by Rasha Al-Hejailan

OK so I've never been a great cook, but for some reason I love buying cookbooks. Yes, they do end-up decorating our kitchen counter with yellow post-it notes sticking out on every side of the book, hopelessly waiting for the recipes to be tried and tested. Nevertheless, I'm a firm believer that there's no such thing as too many cookbooks. Besides, they would make perfect gifts for the foodie in your life, or better yet a gift to your Ramadan hostess to show your gratitude.

The Women in My Life is a new cookbook by Rasha Al-Hejailan, a 28 year old Saudi woman, married with two kids and living in Kuwait. I have read about it on ilSul6ana and Danderma and wanted to get a copy myself. So when Rasha heard, she kindly sent me a copy (Thank you! Very sweet of you).

Rasha spent the majority of her life living abroad and therefore lost touch with a lot of her friends and relatives. So she decided to do something about it. Rasha contacted all the women in her life and asked them to donate their ‘signature’ recipe that she would include in her cookbook along with her own recipes. This process made her spend quality time with her loved ones and learn new things about them.

I read the cookbook myself and there were so many things that I liked about it, like the fact that it emphasizes on cooking with ingredients that are available at your typical grocery store, easy-to-follow cooking instructions, the personal touch in each recipe, the fact that Rasha took all of the photos of the cookbook herself, and last but not least, finding my lovely dear friend Alia (and her famous recipes) as part of the women in Rasha's life. I have personally tried the beef carpaccio Salad and it was sooo good! I'm also very interested to try Rasha'a coffee pancakes recipe.. sounds delish!

And that's not all, part of my book’s sale proceeds go to two different charities that help children in need. One is ‘Helping Hands KSA’ a charity in Saudi Arabia that directly supports underprivileged children. The other is a newly established pediatric care department at ‘Fawzia Sultan Rehabilitation Institute (FSRI)’ in Kuwait.